Tuesday, May 13

False Economy

It has been an expensive week this week; all our gadgets are breaking and need replacing. Most of them were all brought seven and a half years ago. Why do I know exactly when they were brought? This is when I moved in with my husband. When we first came together, I had been travelling around with all my possessions in a backpack. No room for toasters, hairdryers, dishwashers. F still lived at home, like all good Austrian boys who aren´t married. He had no need to buy things. Between us, we had a potato peeling knife and fork. The total extent of our household possessions.

When I moved in we assessed our situation. We have an old house which has evolved over 300 years. Each generation changed rooms or added things in to suit them. During the war it housed 5 separate families. Walls were made with straw, rocks, mud or other things which were available. The walls and floors are not lineal or flat. In fact, furniture needs to have bits of wood added to it or legs cut to fit them in the room. We realised that if we plan on living here with our family we would need to rebuild or renovate. So when we brought our gadgets, we brought cheaper brands as we told ourselves we would buy better ones when our house is finished (little did we know that it would be nearly 10 years before we move into our new house). The €11 iron. €10 hairdryer. €5 kettle. €1 plates. Ikea is a God.

My first kitchen was a small room with a sink in it. There was no space for a stove so we brought a double hotplate with a little baking oven underneath. This lasted three years. In this time I cooked numerous meals. I must admit that it was a bit tricky as you could only use one hotplate at a time when using the oven and being vegetarian and my husband a meat eater, I usually have to cook two different meals at a time. It involved complex logistics. Yet it was an adventure. This was just our waiting time. ( I even cooked a buffet for 30 people on this little oven). When this oven died, we brought another which only lasted one year as we brought an even cheaper brand (surely we will be in our new house soon). But with our second child, we couldn´t fit more than three chairs in our small room and it necessitated finding another solution for our kitchen. This brought more space so when the second oven went to it´s grave, we upgraded to a stand alone cooker. After about a year the oven temperatures started to decrease. We decided that where we live now could always be used as a flat, so we brought a second stand alone cooker, a bit more expensive this time. This continues to live (although we had to drill a hole in the side and stick in a screwdriver to keep the door shut). But we realised, that if we had brought a good quality oven in the first place, we would have actually saved money.

You might think that an €11 iron lasting nearly 8 years is a good investment but my mother - in law has had the same iron for over 40 years. A good quality one. The mixer as well. These were all wedding presents. Are things designed to breakdown quicker now these days? Are we exhausted by so many choices that we just simply buy? I´m sure, though, that most people are similar to me, being a stay at home mother our income is limited. We look for what we can afford at the time rather than saving for best quality. We have entered the disposable age. Not only that, but we can´t survive without the electric toothbrushes, breadmakers, electric kettles, microwaves......... Why not, they don´t cost so much. Save? NOOOOOO I WANT IT NOW.

As a result, we will end up spending more on goods than we think. Over time our expenses will exceed what we would have spent on good quality items in the first place. Our environment will be overrun by the glut of low quality products which has been thrown out and replaced. I for one will not end up running this race. I´m going back to old ways of thinking. I´m going back to the simple life. I´m going to cut out the excess and only buy what I need. I´m going to save and buy quality (which will save me money in the long term). I´m not going to be a victim of False Economy (although we did buy another electric iron as the coal iron my husband brought into me was a bit too inefficient).

1 comment:

Iris Flavia said...

Too funny! Right the other way round here! When we finally moved together we had everything at least double.
We have three kettles, so, if you need one or two...